Transcribed from Sermon Preached November 20, 2004

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

I love these scripture passages. I love Paul's letter to the Philippians. I thank God for it. I thought of just reading this passage over and over and calling that my sermon.

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent and praiseworthy – think about such things.

And then there is John 10: I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and will find pasture. The thief comes only to steal kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. Abundant life. Abundant life!

Now, here is what I want you to do with this John passage. Loosen up. Loosen any rational or literal understanding and think big. Let Jesus blow out beyond your preconceived notions. Think of Jesus as ‘on the side of,’ united with, as the cosmic and organic source of abundant life. We also have to expand our definition of abundant life. Expand it and contract it so that it takes in both more than you are used to relating with and less. Abundant life. All of life together as one, and the least common denominator, the smallest divisible unit. Galaxies are not big enough and atoms not small enough to establish the boundaries of God’s abundant life. The beginning and end of time do not contain all of this abundance, the abundance we should be thanking God for. Thank you God.

We often thank God for the spectacular, the beautiful, the powerful and the majestic. Yosemite, and Big Sur make you want to thank God. Ansel Adams said of Yosemite, "no temple made by man can compare." We all know this is true. The great and beautiful Bay Area cannot compare to Yosemite, but we ought to thank God for the city nonetheless. And we thank God for the subtleness of a wild flower, or the brilliance of an orchestra. I thank God for David and our organ. I thank you David. We ought to do that, but we can’t stop there.

Think for a second about plastic bags. When St. John’s took a group to the beach clean up, we picked up more plastic bags than any other kind of trash. For God’s sake, we need to get a handle on pollution to protect this amazing planet with its abundant life, but we can still be thankful for plastic. The little moments, the little things. Yesterday I caught a midday surf at Ocean Beach. It was a bright sunny clear day with an offshore breeze, and the surf was great. I tried to leave early enough to make it back into town before the big game finished but ran into traffic anyway. Go Bears! But once we got onto the lower deck we began to move well. The sun was low to the Northwest making perfectly sharp shadows from the bridge pillars that sped sideways across the bridge and moving cars. The combination of the perfect light and the speeding cars made for a spectacular natural light show. God is awesome!

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have an old song that goes, "If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you are with." We might be tempted to think of this song only in sexual terms, but I think it they are talking about more than that. Love those you are with now! What are the beautiful things that are happening right now? Right where you are? Whether in the ocean or in a traffic jam, God is near.

The pivotal scene in the film "American beauty" is a home video clip of a plastic bag in a whirlwind. It blows around in circles over and over and over. A part of me wanted it not to be a plastic bag, but it was a plastic bag. It just was. A moment where the young man saw God.

Gandhi insisted upon sharing the work of the untouchables in India. No work, no human is untouchable for God. Mother Teresa taught us too, there is something sacred in dirty work, in cleaning a bathroom or sweeping the floor. Thank God for each new day! Americans like Disneyland. We like to pretend everything is clean and healthy and happy all the time. But Disneyland cannot limit God's abundant life. It is so much more. In Guatemala, the sweetest sound is hands methodically clapping together fresh made tortillas. After grinding the corn, this is often the first task of the day. The whole world waits for that sound. The man of the house often misses the sound because he has left to work in the dark. I know for a fact that if a tortilla is made in the jungle, and no one is there to hear it, it still makes a sound. Even while trudging through the swamp in rubber boots, that sound is heard in memory and in anticipation. All the money in the world cannot purchase the value of that sound. The children shuffle in their beds, pigs begin to oink, birds of all kinds sing thanks to God when those hands clap. The smell of wood fire and tortillas hits your nostrils for a second or two and then moves on. The sound and smell of abundant life. Thank you God for a new day. " I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly."

Are our eyes open to the miracles before us? Every moment of everyday! St. Johns has recently been working very hard to manage our building and budget. I am proud of the work that has been done. It could be that in the process of the struggle I have not been giving thanks enough. We have been anxious. I have been anxious and there is good reason for that. Sometimes anxiety is a good thing. Sometimes anxiety is telling you to listen to something you need to hear. The problem comes when we transfer the anxiety created by one thing onto another. It is hard for us to resolve the anxiety unless we know its source. But we can even thank God for anxiety.

Isn’t that the sure way to make the devil mad? Thank God for anxiety. Most of the significant moments of my life have been filled with anxiety. Some people are so healthy that they can change without being forced to. But most of us need a little help. Anxiety is dangerous, and we would almost always rather have less, but it can certainly help. Do not be anxious about anything, not even anxiety. In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God…

The building gives us more than anxiety. One big part of the great ends of the church is the shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the people of God. There is a lot going on around here to be thankful for. I thought I would twist a few things around for you. I am going to sprinkle in a few estimated figures to give you a sense of what goes on here. How is this building helping the community? One of the things that I wish we could do better is help the homeless. Help can be complicated, especially when we are helping so many different people. Clearly, homelessness is a problem and we are not doing enough. But we are doing something.

St. John’s has given close to a thousand dollars to four different homeless ministries this year, and we are represented on the board of the Berkeley Chaplaincy to the Homeless. We have food baskets in the Narthex which Ethan or I distribute to those who come hungry. We have a clothing barrel as well. Food from the kitchen often goes to homeless. Ethan tries to keep the parking lot clear and shuffles any sleepers out before the children and girls come for school. But the first door he opens is the door into the first floor men’s bathroom. I would venture to guess that our bathroom is used thousands of times throughout the year. Have you ever been thankful for a bathroom? And our custodians do a great job cleaning them. Thank God for the service our custodians do, and thank God for soap and disinfectant and water and sanitation. Ten bathrooms cleaned everyday. 3,650 bathroom cleanings. I am not one to never complain and it may not be in the pastors job description, but pastors shouldn’t think that picking up in the parking lot, or vacuuming, or running the wet/ dry vac to help keep the basement from flooding, or cleaning a bathroom once or twice a year is under or above the call of duty.

We also hire homeless and other needy people to do short term work and have a fund for emergency distribution. For instance, we may provide a hotel and a meal for a mother and her children for one night. It is not enough, but it is something for that one night. We use Deacons fund, Pastor’s discretionary fund and the contracted services line items to help give people short-term work. Until we ran out of money, we were giving out about ten hours a week at ten dollars an hour. Through nine months, this is about $3,600.

To provide shelter one needs a job, and St. Johns is providing jobs. If you include the other organizations using the building, I figure there are close to 28 full time employees. People have made nearly $1,000,000 here this year. We can thank God for jobs.

With the childcare, preschool and girls school combined, over ninety children are cared for and taught five days a week while their parents work. All three schools are doing a good job loving, caring and teaching the children valuable life skills. There are another sixty children in two youth orchestras. Studies have clearly showed that kids with preschool, good elementary education and extra curricular activities are much more likely to avoid trouble in life. Abundant life. Thank you God.

Also hidden in the contracted services portion of our budget is $3,600 we pay to a group of physically and mentally challenged. This group diligently helps clean our sanctuary. I thank God for the work they do.

St. John’s has also given $500 dollars to the Berkeley High Health Center. We have given to them for years and more than one of our members has helped establish and maintain it. It was recently reported that Berkeley High has the lowest rate of teen pregnancy in the state of California. Surely healthy wanted babies for mature mothers is good for families and society. Thank God for Berkeley High Health Center.

Two weeks ago, the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant had their annual fund raising dinner here in Hunter Hall. Besides giving them $500, free space and set up, we have members who have worked intimately with them for years. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, I believe, has some 24 beds in homes for new refugees from places like Haiti and Sudan. They also help them get work, education and legal documentation for healthy assimilation into North American life. I thank God for EBSC and sister Maureen.

Even though some kids may have preschool, elementary school and other activities, not all do and even some of those who have had such things still may manage to become addicted. We know that the rate of addiction in the homeless is extremely high. Most will be unable to climb out of homelessness without giving up drugs and drinking. St John’s has seventeen different recovery groups meeting in our building on a regular basis. These have been highly subsidized by St. John’s. Let’s assume 12 of those seventeen groups meet every week and each group has twelve participants, a conservative estimate. 144 people per week, 12,488 visits per year by people seeking support of a community to help beat their addiction. I thank God for the opportunity for new life provided by these groups.

There is abundant life at St. John’s. We have a senior center and tap classes, helping 35 people live abundant, joyful life until the very end.

And we have worship. It may not be Yosemite, but this sanctuary is a great place to gather as a community and worship and thank God. It is a great place for music and weddings too. 10,000 visitors a year for music. Make no mistake about it, St. John’s is here and this money and space is available for all these wonderful things because the members of St. John’s worship God. No matter who walks through these doors, despite all the crazy, annoying, confounding things in this place, these are God’s doors we walk through.

We have had to shorten the hours our custodians work and are working to get a little more help from other user groups. Time and resources are scarce so different users negotiate to influence our priorities, and this is not always easy or without conflict. More than once I have imagined having a giant chain saw with which I could just saw the building in half. Still we can say this and still thank God for everybody and ever room, and ask God to help us be wise and just stewards of this crazy wonderful place. Whether we come in or go out let us praise the Lord. Like a lamp on a hill, may we shine forth the light of God here in Berkeley.

May God give us eyes to see our connection by the Great Spirit to everyone and everything. May we give thanks for the joy and beauty wherever we are. May we have the courage to change the things that should be changed, the grace to accept the things that we cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.